Missing Venezuelan girl found injured in Moruga

Gabriella Marin Gonzales, a 16-year-old Venezuelan girl who disappeared last week, has been found.

However, her family is still worried, as she cannot remember where she had been for the past week.

Gabriella’s mother, Rosana Theresa Gonzales, said: "She cannot remember anything. Gabriella could not recognise her brother. When asked who she was with or where she was, she did not know.

"Gabriella thinks she is still in Venezuela and is asking for her grandmother (who is in Venezuela).

"She is in pain and can barely walk. Her neck is hurting too."

On Wednesday, the girl was lying on a makeshift bed in the yard when Newsday visited the family’s home in Moruga.

She had injuries to the face, believed to have been from a car accident last week in Cunupia. She appeared to be in pain and did not speak.

Gonzales recalled that on Tuesday around 11 am, a female relative saw Gabriella sitting on the roadside in the sun in Princes Town. Her head was bent forward, with her hair covering her face.

The mother was told there was a bag next to Gabriella with a prescription and other stamped documents from a hospital. Passers-by were staring at the girl, who appeared to be in a daze.

The relative, who had just walked out of a supermarket, dropped the bags in her hands and ran to hug Gabriella.

The relative put the girl in a taxi and took her to her home, in another part of Moruga, and contacted the family.

On Wednesday, Gonzales took Gabriella to the Mourga health centre. Staff members, Gonzales said, suggested the family take her to the San Fernando General Hospital for additional care.

The girl also visited the Moruga police station.

On Friday, Gonzales reported her daughter missing to St Joseph police.

Last week Wednesday, Gabriella left her home at La Fortune Trace in Moruga, saying she was going to look for work in central Trinidad. It appeared she was injured in an accident hours later.

The next day, someone called a relative to say Gabriella was at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope after an accident somewhere in Cunupia.

On Thursday, Gonzales hired a car to go to see her. Staff confirmed Gabriella was there, but her mother did not get to see her.

Gonzales returned on Friday, but was told Gabriella had left with someone.

From what the family was told, staff members initially believed Gabriella was 20. The male person she left with falsely claimed to be a relative. All calls and messages to Gabriella’s cell phone went unanswered.

Gonzales said, "She did not leave the hospital alone.

"She is not in good health. She cannot eat or move about on her own."

"I do not know where my child was in the past week. I feel as if I do not have life in me. But we are waiting on someone to take her to the hospital."

The mother said her daughter is "going and coming," meaning at one moment she is thinking and speaking clearly, and then she is not.

Investigations are ongoing.